


The Seth Cohen Workout Guide

by Rod



Series: Snapshots [2]
Category: The OC
Genre: Making Out, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-10
Updated: 2013-04-10
Packaged: 2017-12-08 01:16:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/755282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rod/pseuds/Rod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Intellectually, Seth has always known that Luke works out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seth Cohen Workout Guide

Luke works out. Seth's always known that intellectually, in the kind of way that he knows that grass is green, money grows on parents and Julie Cooper is mostly botox and collagen. It's a fact, something that Seth duly appreciates in the firmness of Luke's body, but not something to go wild about in and of itself.

Now he's presented with the reality of Luke working out, that's something else. He'd been at a loose end, what with Ryan dashing off straight after school finished to cope with Marissa's latest emergency or at least her latest attempt to lure Ryan back to the Away Team, and Seth should have realised years ago that it was significant that he didn't care much for Star Trek. Anyway, he'd wandered down to the gym to see how his other boyfriend was doing. And if the word 'boyfriend' in that sentence is still making him grin rather than freak out, the word 'other' just makes him unreasonably smug.

Luke turns out to have the place to himself, the rest of the water polo team having long since walked out on their captain-turned-outcast. That has to hurt, Seth thinks vaguely; going from hero to zero in the eyes of the people he had called friends had ripped the ground from under Luke's feet. Hell, he'd even had to be sociable to Seth, which OK, major plus from Seth's point of view, but still. Surviving the social death that went with his father being outed shows that Luke has strengths beyond the purely physical, and that wasn't something Seth had expected.

And now he's here with the purely physical again, watching Luke work his fitness regime, and seeing it is a whole different thing. No, scratch that, _smelling_ it is a whole different thing. Watching Luke, seeing the sheen of sweat glistening on his skin and flex of muscles as he stretches and pulls, that Seth could cope with. Or possibly not, given how his thoughts just turned into porno-poetry, but Seth's blaming that on the smell. Sweaty Luke smells like sex.

When Luke looks up and smiles at Seth, that big stupid grin that lights up the whole room and which these days goes straight to Seth's heart (not to mention his groin, which frankly doesn't need any encouragement), well there's no way he could stay on the sidelines. It would be utterly unreasonable for any man not to step over and kiss his boyfriend firmly under those circumstances, and no jury in the country would say otherwise. Well, no jury in California anyway.

"Hey," Luke says once their lips part.

"You work out," Seth says, his mind firmly fixed on what his eyes and nose are getting pretty damn insistent about.

Luke rolls his eyes. "Me jock," he says slowly and clearly, "me work out lots."

"And much appreciated it is too," Seth tells him. "Also you're smart." He kisses Luke's jaw. "And gorgeous in oh such a manly way." Another kiss, further down Luke's neck. "And unbelievably hot." Kiss. "And mine." Kiss. There is a brief pause as Seth evaluates what he's just said. "OK, strictly you're mine and Ryan's, but he's not here right now."

Luke kisses him back before Seth can launch into a full-scale discussion of just who belongs to who, or to whom for that matter. That's fine by Seth. He sets to returning the kiss, settling himself down on the workout bench in front of Luke so that he can get closer to all that wonderful, sweaty boyfriend. He gets a groan for his efforts as he kisses and licks his way from the sensitive spot under Luke's ear down to the hollow of his throat. Luke tastes every bit as great as he smells, Seth decides. He's going to have to get him to work out even more if this is the result.

There's more of Luke to taste than Seth has access to, so he starts pulling at Luke's T-shirt. He wonders vaguely whether it would be better to talk Luke into wearing a wifebeater like Ryan does so that there would be more skin to work on before he had to get his motor control together, or whether he should just keep Luke's T-shirts so that he can smell sweaty Luke whenever he wants. Which is probably just a little bit kinky, but Seth's too busy to think about that much right now.

To his surprise, Luke grabs Seth's wrists and pulls away from the kissing, resting their foreheads together while he tries to get his breath back. "Woah," he says. "You keep that up, Cohen, and I don't think I'll be able to keep it together. Not that I'm objecting you understand, but Carter will have a fit when he finds out he's sitting where I've come."

Seth grins evilly. "Carter's a bigot who deserves everything he's got coming, so tell me again why we care if he strokes out because you stroked off?"

Luke looks away. "And Ryan's not here," he says quietly.

It is Seth's turn to lean his head against Luke and sigh. "Yeah," he says, "I get it. It wouldn't be right if we had our first time without him being here too. Kind of insulting, leaving him out like that."

"And we've got plans for this evening, too. I don't want to wreck things between us just because I couldn't keep my dick in my shorts for a few hours."

Luke sounds determined, and Seth is struck all over again by how things have changed between them. A year ago, Seth would have sworn that Luke didn't have a caring bone in his body. It just goes to show how wrong he could be.

"I'm sorry," he says, "I shouldn't have started this." It isn't fair though, a Luke who is working out isn't something Seth ought to have to resist.

"Hey, any other time and I'd be all for it."

They sit together quietly for a little while, both regretfully cooling down, when the door to the gym opens. Seth automatically starts to pull away from Luke, and is pleasantly surprised when his boyfriend refuses to let him go.

"Hey."

Seth's head shoots round and he grins broadly. "Ryan, dude, you're back! Awesome."

Ryan stares at the pair of them uncertainly. "Did I miss something?"

"No, but if you'd been here there would definitely have been something to miss."

Somehow that doesn't seem to make Ryan any less confused. Luke rolls his eyes. "Or in English, we missed you," he translates. He smiles, a soft, slight smile very different from the sunrise he gave to Seth earlier but no less heartfelt for that.

Seth finds himself smiling too as Ryan's nervousness melts away. It's weird, really. He and Ryan live in the same house (more or less, but Seth feels that the pool house counts in this case), but somehow it is Luke who knows what both of them need. If he hadn't understood, if he hadn't gone out on a limb...

"Oh," he hears himself saying, "and Luke works out."

Ryan quirks an eyebrow at him, but he's still smiling gently. "And this is news how?"

"Dude, leave the sarcasm to the experts, it is so very not you."

"So," Luke says, clearly attempting to change the subject, "everything's okay with Marissa then?"

"Huh? Oh, that." Ryan shrugs. "There wasn't really anything up with Marissa, I just didn't want everyone to know where I was going." He ducks his head and blushes. Seth considers this for a moment, putting two and two together.

"Would this place you didn't want anyone to know about have anything to do with plans for tonight?" he asks. Ryan looks even more embarrassed, a look Seth really likes on him. It doesn't matter that Seth hadn't figured Ryan for someone who would rent gay porn to get them in the mood this evening, not that Seth's libido needs any help in that department; the way Ryan looks right now Seth wants to hug him, kiss him thoroughly and then try to suck his brains out the long way.

"Uh, there's this drug store down near the bus station," Ryan mumbles. He fumbles in his backpack, pulling out a brown paper bag (people seriously use those, Seth wonders) from which emerges a tube. Water-based lubricant is what the label says, and Seth grins. Trust Ryan to be practical, even while he's turning red enough to heat the entire Newport area.

Luke breaks into a big grin too. "Man, you rock. Come here," he says, stretching out an arm to pull Ryan into a hug. Seth hugs the both of them, for once not thinking of the contrast between his skinny arms and the well-muscled bodies of his guys. It's enough that they all three care about each other, and that there will be sex tonight.

Seth spots the exact moment that Ryan relaxes enough to take a deep, comfortable breath as his head rests on Luke's shoulder. Ryan's eyes open wide for a moment, and he shoots a wordless question to Seth.

Seth smirks. "Hey, I told you Luke works out."


End file.
